0:00:02 > 0:00:06BBC Four Collections - archive programmes chosen by experts.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Forthis collection, Janet Street-Porter has selected
0:00:10 > 0:00:12programmes about Post-War Architecture.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15More programmes on this theme, and other BBC FourCollections,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59In the 1960s, many provincial English towns decided to change their image
0:01:00 > 0:01:02from market town to metropolis.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05The experiment was not a success.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09There is no plan nor dream of the future, only the nightmare.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25And then, in the middle of Ipswich,
0:01:25 > 0:01:26a view of what might have been.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29The Willis Corroon Building, designed by Norman Foster
0:01:29 > 0:01:32for 1,200 insurance workers in the middle of the '70s.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40The curtain wall of tinted glass
0:01:40 > 0:01:43is made of hundreds of individual sheets,
0:01:43 > 0:01:46bolted together, sometimes at different angles, reflecting
0:01:46 > 0:01:49a surreal image of the city that surrounds it.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58The free-flowing contours
0:01:58 > 0:02:02are reminiscent of the famous vases designed by Alvar Aalto in the '30s,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05and influenced by the glass skyscrapers of Mies van der Rohe
0:02:05 > 0:02:06a decade earlier.
0:02:17 > 0:02:18The new technology of the '70s
0:02:18 > 0:02:22made it possible for Norman Foster to realise this vision -
0:02:22 > 0:02:24creating an amoebic island in the centre of Ipswich
0:02:25 > 0:02:27which flows to the edge of its site
0:02:27 > 0:02:30like a drop of water on a glass slide.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41What is wonderful - as you come into the building,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43you realise the implication
0:02:43 > 0:02:46of this free form and what it could mean
0:02:46 > 0:02:47in terms of making a new work space.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51The idea that you bring in light, not only through glass,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54but through the use of colours - the idea of landscape.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58The idea of yellow being the sun, green being the grass.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And it's making an internal world for work,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05which could be wonderful and very healthy and bright.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Twin escalators lead up to the two vast trading floors,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26with room for up to 500 office workers on each level.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30But there is a vast open space in the centre of the building,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33that allows the light to pour in from the roof and the glass walls.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01This building was built when I was an architecture student in London
0:04:01 > 0:04:02in the '70s.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05For me, what was very exciting about it was the fact that
0:04:05 > 0:04:07one can take a very simple, abstract idea
0:04:07 > 0:04:09and make it into an office building -
0:04:09 > 0:04:11it would have been maybe less eccentric if it was just a house
0:04:12 > 0:04:13or a pavilion.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15But the fact that it was a work space, which defied
0:04:15 > 0:04:17the normal idea of an office space
0:04:17 > 0:04:18was what makes, for me,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21this building very important and very exciting.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38Despite the open plan, it is surprisingly quiet.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40These globes are for the PA system
0:04:40 > 0:04:43which relays a deadening blanket of sound
0:04:43 > 0:04:47to mop up the noise of over 1,000 computers and telephones.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49And when the level of daylight is too low,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52hundreds of discreet ceiling lights are activated.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55This is the democratic office of the future,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57imagined by the early modernists
0:04:57 > 0:05:00but not fully realised until the '60s and '70s -
0:05:00 > 0:05:03an open plan in which the only walls are those made
0:05:03 > 0:05:06by the workers themselves out of filing cabinets.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12But what I really like about the inside
0:05:12 > 0:05:14is the way the glass wall makes the outside world
0:05:14 > 0:05:16both close but oddly distant.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Only on the ground floor does the dream fade.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24Norman Foster wanted to combine the concept of work and leisure
0:05:24 > 0:05:25in the same space.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28He did not want to make any distinction between the two,
0:05:28 > 0:05:33so in his design he included a gym, a creche and a swimming pool.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37Sadly, for one reason or another, all have been closed.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53The one remaining amenity is on the top floor - the staff restaurant.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05Here you can see the engineering that Norman Foster brings to his work,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09and which he believes in revealing at every opportunity.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15The space is used at all times by the workers,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17not just for eating and drinking,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20but for business conferences and discussions.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27And one of the most important features of the restaurant
0:06:27 > 0:06:29is access to the roof garden -
0:06:29 > 0:06:34half an acre of topsoil seeded with grass and bounded by a privet.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46What is wonderful about this building is that suddenly you emerge
0:06:46 > 0:06:49from the workplace onto this roof,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52and you are surrounded as if you are in the landscape,
0:06:52 > 0:06:53you are in a meadow.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57This idea of the juxtaposition of pleasure and leisure
0:06:57 > 0:06:59with the workplace
0:06:59 > 0:07:02makes this building very interesting for me.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05And then the roof also connects to all the surrounding buildings
0:07:05 > 0:07:07and the surrounding landscape.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10All the green kind of connects to the green around it.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12But the unfortunate thing, of course, as you look this way
0:07:12 > 0:07:15you see this new addition
0:07:15 > 0:07:19which is reminiscent of the Forbidden City,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23and I wonder, what does that have to do with Englishness?
0:07:28 > 0:07:31This is surely one of the most unattractive skylines
0:07:31 > 0:07:32I have ever seen -
0:07:32 > 0:07:34the village that grew too big for itself,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36the tragic result of an unplanned urban landscape.
0:07:43 > 0:07:44In such a landscape,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Norman Foster's building stands out as a bold statement of possibility.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51But, for me, the most exciting feature is the way
0:07:51 > 0:07:54it changes its character from day to night.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58By day, it's a dark pool reflecting the outside world,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00hiding what is within.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03But as the daylight fades, the inside slowly becomes visible.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06It is as if, when the workers have gone home,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09the building comes alive and reveals a secret identity.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16This was not my favourite building when it was built,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19but I have come to like it more and more.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22It is strange to think that it was completed 20 years ago
0:08:22 > 0:08:25but is has a freshness and vigour that does not date.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28It is not very typical of the work of Norman Foster,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30but I think it is one of his best -
0:08:30 > 0:08:33a timeless classic, a vision of what is possible.